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New York Times: More is Not Necessarily Better |
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Written by Matt
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Monday, 23 August 2004 |
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This piece originally appeared in the New York Times op-ed page, August 23, 2004.
More Is Not Necessarily Better By MATTHEW HINDMAN and KENNETH NEIL CUKIER Imagine if one company controlled the card catalog of every library in the world. The influence it would have over what people see, read and discuss would be enormous. Now consider online search engines. Few people realize that 95 percent of all Web searches in the United States are handled by two companies, Google and Yahoo, either directly or through other sites that use their technology. In the case of Google, whose shares started to trade publicly last week, the company holds the world's largest index of Web content, at more than four billion pages, and handles more than 200 million searches a day. The influence of search companies in determining what users worldwide can see and do online is breathtaking. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 11 June 2007 )
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The Boston Globe: A Worthy Strategy for Affordable Housing |
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Written by Matt
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Saturday, 27 March 2004 |
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This piece originally appeared on the Op-Ed page of the Boston Globe on March 27, 2004.
A Worthy Strategy for Affordable Housing
By MATTHEW HINDMAN
WHEN JOHN WINTHROP led the Puritans across the Atlantic, he dreamed of filling the new Massachusetts Bay Colony with numerous small, autonomous, self-governing villages. Much to his chagrin, he succeeded -- and independent-minded town deputies proved a recurring headache during his many terms as the colony's governor. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 11 June 2007 )
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International Herald Tribune: Keep the Web Wordly and Wide |
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Written by Matt
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Thursday, 11 December 2003 |
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This piece originally appeared in the International Herald Tribune, December 11, 2003.
Keep the Web Worldly and Wide By MATTHEW HINDMAN and KENNETH NEIL CUKIER
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- The World Wide Web as we know it was born 10 years ago last month when a handful of students at the University of Illinois released a tiny piece of software called the Mosaic browser. Later renamed Netscape, it made the Internet a colorful and inviting medium that anyone could navigate. Millions soon flocked online, and Netscape's public stock listing two years later ushered in the dot-com boom. Today 600 million people around the world use the Web, digital traffic doubles each year and the most common language online will soon be Chinese. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 11 June 2007 )
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New York Times: More Media, Less Diversity |
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Written by Matt
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Monday, 02 June 2003 |
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This piece originally appeared in The New York Times, June 2, 2003.
More Media, Less Diversity By MATTHEW HINDMAN and KENNETH NEIL CUKIER
 AMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to decide today whether decades-old regulations on news media ownership should be loosened. It is expected to do so -- in part on the rationale that the Internet increases the number of information sources that Americans see. This reasoning is mistaken. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 11 June 2007 )
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New York Times: How the Web Will Change Campaigns |
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Written by Matt
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Wednesday, 25 December 2002 |
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This piece originally appeared on the op-ed page of the New York Times, December 25, 2002.
How the Web Will Change Campaigns
By MATTHEW HINDMAN
CAMBRIDGE, MASS--The Internet was supposed to change the nature of politics. Technology would bring participatory democracy to a new level, ushering in a sort of Jefferson-meets-the-Jetsons era. But as the new Congress prepares to convene next month, a look at the Web's role in the recent midterm elections reveals that so far, such claims are as inflated as the predictions that the Internet would bankrupt bricks-and-mortar businesses. The Web has transformed the "C2V" (candidate-to-voter) relationship even less than it has changed the "B2C" (business-to-consumer) dynamic. Still, just as in the dot-com world, it has had a real impact on logistics and operations. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 11 June 2007 )
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